Countrywide, Full Spectrum make cost approach optional

LandSafe announced it was revising its policy, implemented with the official introduction of the new Fannie Mae forms, requiring a cost approach analysis on all reports.

The cost approach will still be required on all manufactured home (1004C) appraisals except where FHA requirements might dictate otherwise. It will also be required for all LandSafe "National Accounts," that is, clients other than Countrywide and Full Spectrum Lending.

Countrywide and Full Spectrum will now no longer require the cost approach on single-family 1004 or multi-family 1025 reports "unless this approach is necessary to make your analysis convincing and credible to our reviewers," the company said.

It cautioned, "If you are requested to furnish a Cost Approach, it is a condition of the assignment and it is required and must be furnished."

Countrywide Financial Corp. was the nation's largest originator of mortgage loans in the third quarter of 2005, with a volume more than double that of the third-ranked lender.

More information is available for LandSafe appraisers at the company's Appraisal Services site.